{"id":9520,"date":"2017-07-24T22:03:15","date_gmt":"2017-07-25T02:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9520"},"modified":"2017-07-24T22:03:15","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T02:03:15","slug":"do-dukes-fans-need-to-check-our-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=9520","title":{"rendered":"Do Dukes Fans Need To Check Our Expectations?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five short weeks from Saturday the Dukes will take the field in Greenville, NC to begin what is far and away the most anticipated season in the football program’s history. There have been years, especially in decade plus since the ’04 title, where us fans had sky-high expectations (’08, ’15 for sure) or reasons for massive excitement (opening of New BFS in ’10). But there has never been a year when predictions from everyone that bleeds purple for a pending campaign almost universally ranged ONLY between a “disappointing” 10-1 or a spotless 11-0 for the regular season with an absolute assumption of a deep playoff run if not a third championship. At today’s CAA Media Day<\/a> in Baltimore (insert CAA jokes here), any coach or writer that picks – or even mentions – a different conference champ in the official preseason poll or the straw polls will be laughed out of the room.<\/p>\n

In very un-JMUSB fashion, we’re here to do some much-needed tempering of those delusions of grandeur. This is equal parts preview, commentary, and horsecrap, but we think it’s much needed at the moment.<\/p>\n

Yes, we know the Dukes turned into a ridiculous juggernaut late last year after less than a season of Coach Houston drilling them into his likeness. They won every playoff game by double-digits and could’ve won a couples by triple-digits (we see you Soft Houston St.). And yes, we know JMU is bringing back truckloads of talent including best-in-the-nation-at-their-positions players like QB Bryan Schor, LT Aaron Stinnie, and TE Jonathan Kloosterman, not to mention a defense that while it lost some big-time performers (Reynolds, Steele, etc.) should be even more dialed in during year two of this staff’s system. And they’re adding not only a slew of potentially strong FBS transfers, but also a few beasts from the group that redshirted last year after staying the course from what turned out to be a very strong class during Everett Withers’ single real recruiting cycle. They have the perfect coaching staff, the perfect schemes, a mountain of momentum, great unis<\/a>, a continuously more watered-down FCS, the best stadium in the country at this level, and a raucous fanbase that remembered (or learned depending on your spot in the JMU fandom evolutionary progression) what it is like to really root fer’ Dukes last year. Our beloved Dukes are ranked in the top three nationally in every major poll, including #1 in Lindy’s<\/a>. Oh yeah, and Raven Greene got an extra year of eligibility. All those things plus a bunch of things we forgot are understandably contributing to the hysteria.<\/p>\n

BUT…this shit is hard. Like, really hard. You think NDSU didn’t think every second until the John Miller TD in December that the Bison weren’t winning their sixth straight or Eastern Washington didn’t think they were going to outscore the Dukes in the title game until the YSU kid made a grab that would make David Tyree blush? Every single Dukes fan in the world thought the ’08 and ’15 teams were championship bound right up to the moments Rodney Landers and Vad Lee went down. The Dukes eeked out a great win over the rival Ticks in Richmond last year, then the SweaterVests suffered a bunch of injuries and their coach dropped a deuce on their administration at playoff time. But Satchmo and company will be in fine shape after stealing Russ Heusman away from Chattanooga as the Dukes did with Houston from El Cid the year before. Just in the CAA there will be more challenges. Always talent-laden Delaware will be coached by former Ticks HC and surprised-face emoji Danny Rocco<\/a>. They’ll be better immediately. Villanova will be Villanova, and out to support their new regime. Maine had a few stud freshman that made that game annoying last year. UNH will be UNH. Actually, on second thought, UNH might finally suck, or at least we hope so.<\/p>\n

\"Lock

Lock the Damn Gates!<\/p><\/div>\n

And that game at ECU we’re all feeling so great about? Let’s not forget they were in their first year with child-coach Scottie Montgomery during whatever that was they tried to play last season (seriously, good job effort there JMU-grad-AD Jeff Compher in firing pretty much the most respected man in college football Ruffin McNeill to go 2-9 last year). They have 22 more scholarships than JMU and the Pirates absolutely know they might not win a game till Week 5 if they can’t hold serve at home in their FCS opener. It’ll be four thousand degrees down there that night if there isn’t a three-hour lightning delay (don’t say you weren’t warned) and EZU will be ready.<\/p>\n

So let’s all just slow our roll a tiny bit and, in the boring words of literally every coach ever, just enjoy “the process.” JMU needs all the talent to gel and not get complacent after a trophy or be irked by having to share playing time and the spotlight. It needs Cole Johnson or one of the other QB2’s to make us feel like the entire season isn’t dependent on Schor’s collarbone. The Dukes need special teams to be as special as they were last year. And maybe most importantly, they need to realize that the first three games (ECU and then two cupcakes at home) may not be indicative of how good – or not – the squad is and they better be ready to play when the Black Bears come to town in late September.<\/p>\n

So let’s all pace ourselves as we get ready for the 2017 season. After all, it’s still six months till Frisco! Go Dukes!<\/p>\n